Monde Languages
All players start off with their race's base languages as well as additional languages based on int. However, the following important rules apply: #Based on what city your character originates in, you gain an additional language. See each city page to see what languages are spoken there. #Within the walls of the cities themselves, only certain languages are commonly spoken. This means if you're in Kalt, most of the residents will not speak common. #In each community, it's still possible to find individuals who speaks various languages (most often common). However, this becomes increasingly rare in more monstrous cities, and may require payment. #The best advantage is simply being able to speak a variety of languages, either through having high Intelligence, taking ranks in Linguistics, or making sure different party members have different languages. #It's very important to know that regardless of your race you can take any language in the game world. Those listed under races are simply the most common or easiest for your race to speak. The following languages are significant in Monde. Other languages may exist (such as Gnoll or Tengu), but are rare and generally only spoken between members of the same race. *'Abyssal' - A demonic language, usually associated with dangerous places and thieves. Spoken primarily in Agujero and Kalt. Pirates and traveling bandits also usually speak abyssal. *'Aquan' - The language of sea-life and aquatic creatures. Spoken primarily in Kalt and Seaside Town due to their population of merfolk and similar races. *'Celestial' - An angelic language, associated with lawful good creatures and aasimar. Spoken primarily in La Palais D'ivoire. The language also carries weight and respect among humans. *'Common' - The most common language (hence the name), spoken by nearly any race. It's usually not hard to find someone who speaks Common. Most common in La Palais D'ivoire and Seaside Town. *'Draconic' - The ancient language of dragonkind. Mostly only spoken by kobolds and in kobold-centric communities. Most common in Schaal Vuur. *'Elven' - A language spoken by elves and elvenkind. Fairly common in Schwarze Felsen where many elves live. *'Goblin' - The language of goblins, hobgoblins, gnoll, and other similar creatures. Mostly only spoken in Girochin. *'Ignan' - The language of fire, spoken by demons and creatures used to fire and heat. Also adopted by kobolds in some areas due to their tendency to reside in the same location as creatures who speak Ignan. Mostly spoken in Schaal Vuur and the Pulverem. *'Infernal' - A demonic language, spoken by more powerful and ancient demonoids. It's a language of mystery, sometimes spoken by shady types, mystics, gypsies, and sorcerers. More common on other planes, but in Monde really only present in Agujero. *'Military Sign Language' - Invented for the same reasons as Sign Language, this is used mostly in military contexts and is designed to communicate silently and give instructions quickly. Military Sign Language has its own unique alphabet and can be written and only understood by people who know Military Sign Language -- however, as it's mostly used in military contexts, some concepts are difficult or impossible to get across. For instance, there are no novels written in Military Sign Language. Military Sign Language hand signals cannot be understood by Tongues or Comprehend Languages, although the written portion can. *'Orc' - Spoken by orcs and other warlike races. Orc is a hard language to speak for a lot of races. Outsiders with accents speaking Orc are usually treated poorly by native speakers. Uncommon outside of Girochin. Players without Orc as a native language must invest two ranks in it to speak it without a trace of accent, otherwise they will be flagged as outsiders. Players may make bluff checks on an individual basis to fake the proper accent. *'Sign Language' - Invented due to the usage of Tongues spells, for the deaf, and other creatures not capable of normal speech. Also often used by individuals who wish not to be overheard, such as thieves. Sign Language has its own unique alphabet and can be written and only understood by people who know Sign Language. Sign Language hand signals cannot be understood by Tongues or Comprehend Languages, although the written portion can. *'Sylvan' - The language of nature, fey, plants, and animals. Most fey and fey descendants speak this language. Lama Fuoco and Schwarze Felsen, having the largest concentration of fey, speak Sylvan. *'Terran' - The language of earth, spoken by outsiders and other creatures bound to the earth. On Monde, creatures that live in the desert such as in Lama Fuoco and the Pulverem are most likely to speak and understand Terran. To summarize which languages are spoken where in the world: *Agujero - Abyssal, Common, Goblin, Infernal, Sign Language, Terran *Girochin - Goblin, Orc *Kalt - Abyssal, Aquan *La Palais D'ivoire - Celestial, Common, Military Sign Language *Lama Fuoco - Common, Elven, Sylvan, Terran *Schaal Vuur - Draconic, Ignan *Schwarze Felsen - Common, Elven, Sylvan *Seaside Town - Aquan, Common, Elven, Sylvan *The Pulverem - Common, Ignan, Terran Besides the ones listed above, there are additional languages that may be spoken in small communties or tribes, among families, or between members of a specific race. Though these are possible to learn, they're not very common, and may not be useful in most circumtsances. The ones available are: *'Dwarven' - Spoken by dwarves and other underground races such as duergar. Most dwarves however speak common. *'Gazette' - The native language of gazettes, although it is very similar to sylvan and can be considered a different dialect of it. Being able to speak one allows general understanding of the other. *'Giant '- Spoken primarily by cyclops, giants, ettins, ogres, and trolls. Larger creatures tend to use this language rather than those of "smaller" creatures. *'Gnoll' - Only spoken by gnoll, although most gnoll speak goblin. *'Gnome' - A language spoken only by gnomes and svirfneblin. Generaly phased out in modern times and replaced by common or sylvan. *'Grippli '- The native language of grippli. *'Halfling '- The native language of halflings. Generally phased out in modern times as halflings are typically integrated fairly well into human society. *'Tengu - '''The native language of tengu. Finally, besides the languages listed above there are a few specific secret or difficult/complex/rare languages that may be encountered. Learning any of these languages is generally considered a huge task, and may even be impossible for the average adventurer. These are: *'Aklo''' - Spoken by spacefaring races. Various aberrations and other such creatures treat Aklo as their native tongue, and the language is used primarily in spaceships. Exceptionally rare on Monde itself. *'Druidic' - A secret language only spoken by druids. Druids are normally forbidden to teach this language to others, and it's not found in textbooks. *'Necril' - The language of the dead, spoken and understood inherently by the undead. Considered a secret language, this is mostly only taught to necromancers. Since the Dead War, necromancy is considered taboo, and the language only exists in books, and many books pertaining to necromancy have been destroyed. Studying and learning the language is exceedingly difficult, and no known existing creatures speak it. *'Ocari' - The language primarily spoken by Ocari. It is not similar to any other language and is magically infused to be immune to tongues and similar spells and abilities. It's a very complex language and can be spoken to anyone so as to be understood by them if the speaker chooses. Ocari takes a lot of work to master, and counts as three languages. *'Primordial' - An incredibly ancient language, used hundreds if not thousands of years ago. While similar to Common, the language is difficult to learn and is exceedingly rare. Only a few books are known to be written in the language. *'Undercommon' - The common language of creatures that dwell under the earth. As little is known about the world under the ground, it's not known what races speak it or where. It can be found in books, and some scholars teach and study it for historical purposes.